How to get a rank within 100 in CET

I did NOT prepare for the competitive exams from two years like most other students. I did NOT join any CET special coaching classes. I did NOT go to any kind of tuitions or crash course. I did NOT study for any higher competitive exam like IIT-JEE, AIEEE etc. Then how did I do it?

Hi! I'm Anil and I got 49th rank in the Karnataka Common Entrance Test 2011. You can verify this by visiting kea official website. My CET no. is CU056. Wanna know how to succeed in competitive exams? Do you feel that you are not really good at MCQs? Read on to find out what you have to do to win this rat race!

I started studying properly for the exam only from one month before. So if any of you are those lazy types who leave such mundane things as studying till the end do not despair! You have come to the right place. Just follow these simple steps to ensure success is yours!

1. Start early!!!

Yes, I know that I started quite late but if you wanna be better than the others then you gotta do better than the others! Start early. Preferably 2 years before. Steady consistent effort works for everybody and it gives far better results than last minute hurried preparations. Its the way in which our mind works! Stay relaxed and focussed and your mind will take in all the data that you feed it. But if you are tensed your brain will concentrate on relaxing and you will lose all the data that you try to learn at that time.

2. Do NOT get mesmerized by all the fancy study materials!

If you go to any book shop they will show you all the textbooks and CDs they have got leaving you utterly perplexed! Just ask your teachers for a reputable brand which publishes books with the least errors in their solutions( Unfortunately, these textbooks do have a lot of errors!) and stick to it! Take my advice, all the books have more or less the same type of questions, the same type of hints and solutions too.

3. Strive for quality not quantity!

Your aim should be to answer the questions correctly and in a short span of time. But in the beginning you may be a bit slow! That is understandable. Don't listen to your friends saying that they solved these many questions in 1 hour and all that! It is not about how many questions you answer in 60 minutes it is about how many questions you answer CORRECTLY.

4. Practice!

In the end, you must practise as many sample papers as you can get your hands on. Stop wasting time cramming complicated formulae into your head and start answering question papers. Try to answer within the time limit since by now you would have got sufficient practice. If it is MCQs that you are answering try to answer them on duplicate OMR sheets so that you get a feel of the exam.

5. Do NOT answer an MCQ without reading all the options first!

I myself have done this mistake on countless occassions. Remember! There are no difficult questions. There are only easy questions and tricky questions. Some questions have stupid options so you would be wasting precious minutes trying to solve the question when you can easily deduce the answer.

6. Taking a shorcut can be a boon or a bane!

You might think that memorising as many formulae as possible is the way to go but I disagree. The more formulae you try to memorise the bigger is the chance of you making a mistake in remembering them. This can lead to negative marking. Remember! Even 1 mark can make a difference of a 100 ranks!!

7. The last step!

While solving MCQs do NOT try to solve a question; try to find the answer. Knowing the difference between solving a question and finding the answer is the difference between an average student and a smart student. To crack competitive exams you have got to be smart as hell!